Almost half of all pregnant women in Ireland exceed medical guidelines for weight gain during pregnancy, according to a new study by UCD Researchers at the National Maternity Hospital, Holles St. The findings also show that excessive weight gain during pregnancy has significant implications for infant growth and obesity, with potential implications for later adult health.

Ms Kate Matthews pays tribute to the late Brian Bentley, Past President of the Society and College of Radiographers (UK). Brian was a leading figure in radiography education and was a much admired external examiner whose wise counsel was much appreciated by UCD Diagnostic Imaging.

The 2014 U21 Health Sciences Doctoral Student Forum will be held at Fudan University in September 2014. The organisers are inviting abstracts from Health Science doctoral students who are advanced in their studies and who wish to present their work at the forum. Closing Date for abstract submission is 6th June 2014.

Although it is generally considered that genetic disorders in the Irish Traveller population are caused by common autosomal recessive mutations, recent studies have revealed an unexpected genetic heterogeneity in certain conditions.

Ten years ago, Irish researchers joined a major international research initiative aimed at delineating the genetic basis of autism spectrum disorders with a view to ensuring earlier diagnosis and individualised treatment of autism. This international collaboration has recently published in the American Journal of Human Genetics what some consider will be the landmark paper from this initiative, Convergence of Genes and Cellular Pathways Dysregulated in Autism Spectrum Disorders.

The researchers with the Autism Genome Project are calling for the wider use of copy number variants (CNVs) analysis as a step towards improved individualized diagnosis and treatment of autism. The Irish Group, Dr Ennis and Dr. Regan from UCD and Professor Gallagher from TCD, are continuing to work on this interesting area of Autism Research by investigating CNVs at higher resolution on a subset of Irish patients, work that is supported by the National Children’s Research Centre and the Health Research Board.

Dublin played host to a major international conference on paediatric infectious diseases recently as over 2,500 clinicians, epidemiologists and scientists gathered in the Dublin Convention Centre under the auspices of the European Society for Paediatric Infectious Diseases for their 32nd annual general meeting.

It is with sadness that we note the sudden death of Prof John M Fitzpatrick, Head of Research at the Irish Cancer Society. Prof Fitzpatrick was Emeritus Professor of Surgery at the UCD School of Medicine, former consultant urologist and former chair, Division of Surgery at Mater Misericordiae University.

UCD Pathology is delighted to announce the establishment of the Peter Dervan Memorial Medal for Excellence in Cancer Pathology. This medal has been established to recognise the enormous contribution that the late Professor Peter Dervan made to Cancer Pathology here at UCD and internationally. The medal will be award competitively to a student in UCD Medicine who has excellence in the area of Cancer Pathology.